The burger of truth

Tim Blair

Sunday, June 07, 2009 at 05:01am

It’s just a sign with some Memphis-area Burger King franchisee’s entirely reasonable opinion on it:


(Pic via the Memphis Flyer)

Naturally, panic ensued. The story has since spread from a Memphis weekly to Australia to Canada to MSNBC to the London Guardian, whose reporter Leo Hickman subsequently contacted J.J. McNelis, marketing president of the company running the Burger King franchise. “What proceeded,” writes Hickman, who is apparently astonished by someone speaking his mind (and who probably meant to write “followed"), “was one of the more memorable calls I’ve made as a journalist.” Edited highlights:

Hickman: So your reaction to this whole story that’s now gone around the world is bemusement and amusement?

McNelis: It certainly shows the power of internet communications and the society we live in, that it would even get played over across the pond.

Hickman: Apparently, it even featured on MSNBC ...

McNelis: I heard it even made that Keith Olbermann show which is, gosh, a real coup. A small franchisee over in Memphis, Tennessee, can be the “The Worst Person in the World”. If that’s the case then we’ve got a pretty good damn thing going.

Hickman: Are you not a fan of the show?

McNelis: Well, the technology now allows that anyone with a microphone can make a complete idiot of themselves … the corollary to the comment I’ve just made is that obviously this is today’s news and tomorrow they’ll be talking about something else whether it’s what Barack Obama is apologising for over in Cairo, or any other number of things, and we’ll look at this in the rear-view mirror and be movin’ on.

You can imagine why a Guardian writer like Hickman is startled by all of this; from his perspective, McNelis (a dual warming and Obama heretic) might as well be telling him that lumber is a drink and ghosts should be entitled to vote. A concluding highlight:

McNelis: If someone wants to stand up and say “Global Warming is Baloney”, then I’m all for it. It doesn’t matter to me, whether I believe in it or not. They have first amendment rights to say whatever’s on their mind. And nobody dictates otherwise.

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Yes, we can't have people expressing non-approved opinions can we? I mean, where would that end?

Posted via email from Garth's posterous